Madness knows no bounds. March hares are boxing early and desperate football clubs are following suit. Not that fists were raised here; not a card was shown. But the game was possessed of a frantic hilarity normally deferred to late April. It teetered like farce on a tightrope of credibility and at the end it was Charlton whose spirits were down with their trousers. Though almost a quarter of the season lies ahead, they are nine points adrift, 12 from safety.

"If we can win these next three we'll be back in touch" floated in the air on the way in. Fans are dreamers if not pessimists. But Charlton have won two of their past 26. No striker had struck for three months. Trésor Kandol ended that sequence, turning gifts into goals and 0–1 into 2–1. But Grzegorz Rasiak, with a left-foot volley to his own cushioned trap, and Tamas Priskin's sixth in seven games saw Watford to their fourth win in five games. Like Don Cowie's opener they were the goals of a side who expect to score them. Watford average two a game over the past seven. Brendan Rodgers' creed of "ruthless simplicity" is taking them away from trouble.

Both clubs have new managers since they met in August with higher ambitions. Two seasons ago they played a goalless draw here in the Premier League in front of 27,000. Under the sinking circumstances it says much for Charlton and their fans that they have not fallen below 20,000. What would they give now for middle-of-the-table boredom, even in the Championship? But the architects of their stability, Alan Curbishley and the chief executive, Peter Varney, have gone and the parachute money that was meant to let them lightly into lower surroundings has snagged.

Phil Parkinson made it seem like a millstone, plunging the club to the third tier for the first time since 1981. "The fighting spirit was lacking," he said. Watford had it in plenty. A minute before Priskin's winner Jon Harley dived full length to block Kandol as he shot for a hat-trick. In theory 30 more points are ample for Charlton's survival; in practice they need a rallying figure on field, perhaps the returning Zheng Zhi or Nicky Bailey. The other two of Charlton's three games in the "back in touch" run are at Reading tomorrow and Wolves. Hope lies only in madness.